20 years ago

Number 10 Downing Street has warned the Department of Education and Science of the dangers to the future status of institutions which lose both "core sciences" - physics and chemistry - now under review ... In physics the average staff numbers are just under 30 but since the whole point of the review is concentration of resources there is no prospect of moving staff from large departments to small ones, avoiding closures ... Mrs Thatcher, herself a chemist, has put on paper for the DES her conviction that an institution which has neither physics nor chemistry departments cannot be called a university.

Remembering just how many pints they had sunk the night before was one of the biggest problems faced by students attempting to fill in a questionnaire on alcohol awareness. Well over a third of the 110 students at Birmingham who responded to the survey experienced memory loss after drinking. This may be why some thought they were drinking less than actually they were - with only 4 per cent classing themselves as heavy drinkers despite the fact that a quarter of the sample drank more than the maximum "safe" limit.